Читать книгу The Australian Affairs Collection - Margaret Way - Страница 32

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

‘I DON’T UNDERSTAND why you won’t marry me,’ Ben raged when he finally got Jess back to his apartment. ‘If you love me the way you say you do, then what’s the problem? Hell on earth, Jess, I can give you anything you want.’

‘That’s the problem, Ben. I don’t want what you can give me. I don’t want to live this kind of life,’ she said, sweeping her right arm around at his apartment. ‘It’s too much. We wouldn’t have any real friends. Neither would our children.’

‘That’s ridiculous. I have real friends.’

‘No, you don’t. There wasn’t a single person there tonight who was a real friend. The only real friend you have is Andy in Australia, and that’s because you met him when you weren’t so rich. Being a billionaire means you can’t live an ordinary life, Ben. As your wife, I won’t be able to live an ordinary life either. You’ll want me to go to toffee-nosed dos and dinner parties all the time with people that I despise. You’ll want me to stop making my own clothes. You’ll insist I have a stylist and a designer wardrobe. Our children will have nannies and bodyguards and be sent to snobby boarding schools whilst we stay at home and entertain. I’m sorry, Ben, but that’s not what I want for my children. That’s not what I want for me.’

He stopped pacing around the living room and sent her a disbelieving look. ‘You really mean this, don’t you?’

‘I do,’ she said, even though her heart was breaking.

He swore, then strode over and yanked her hard against him. ‘I could make you change your mind,’ he ground out darkly.

‘No, Ben,’ she said firmly. ‘You couldn’t.’

‘Even if I promise you the world?’

‘Especially if you promise me the world.’

‘Then you don’t really love me,’ he growled and threw her from him.

When she almost fell over he grabbed her again, but not so roughly this time, his expression both apologetic and desperate. ‘I’m sorry. God, I’m sorry. I would never hurt you, Jess. But please, don’t do this. I beg of you. Stay with me. I need you. I love you. I won’t let you go!’

Jess was not at her best when cornered. ‘You can’t stop me, Ben.’

‘Then go, damn you.’ And, before she could say another word, he was gone, slamming the front door behind him.

She waited for hours but he didn’t come back. She tried his phone but it was turned off. Clearly, he didn’t want her contacting him. She couldn’t rest, just paced the apartment, her mind awhirl with regrets and recriminations.

It had been cruel of her to reject Ben’s proposal like that on the same day that he’d buried his father. It was no wonder he’d lost his temper with her. She’d hurt him. Terribly. At the same time, Jess could not deny that what she’d said had been true. She knew she wouldn’t be happy living this kind of life. And he wouldn’t be happy with her as his wife. They lived in different worlds. She had always led a simple life whereas Ben lived like this, she thought, her gaze once again taking in the sheer luxury of her surrounds.

In the end, Jess made an agonising decision. She packed, then went downstairs and got the doorman to summon a cab for her.

‘JFK airport,’ she told the driver in a broken voice.

She cried all the way to the airport where she had to wait some time before she could get a flight out. Just before she boarded, she sent Ben an explanatory and deeply apologetic text message. She didn’t want him to worry about where she was, but she also didn’t want him to follow her. The plane she caught set down in San Francisco, where she changed planes for the long flight back to Sydney. When she checked her messages, there wasn’t one from Ben.

Jess didn’t sleep much on the plane—she was travelling economy—so by the time she reached Mascot she was very tired and seriously depressed. She caught the bus over to the long-distance car park where she’d left her four-wheel drive, then literally had to force herself to drive home. Fortunately, it wasn’t peak hour in Sydney, so it only took her a couple of hours. Even so, by the time she pulled into the driveway at home, she was totally wrecked.

Her mother must have heard a vehicle pull up outside; the front door was flung open just as Jess staggered up to it.

‘Jess!’ she exclaimed. ‘Good heavens. I didn’t expect it to be you. I was just having morning tea when I heard a car. What are you doing back so soon?’

‘Mum, I can’t talk now. I have to go to bed.’

‘Can you just give me a clue as to what’s happened?’ Ruth asked as she followed her weary daughter up the stairs.

Jess stopped at the top step. ‘If you must know, Ben told me he loved me and wanted to marry me.’

‘He did?’

‘I turned him down.’

‘You turned him down?’ Ruth repeated, somewhat stunned.

‘Mum, he’s too rich. I would have been miserable.’

‘It wouldn’t have been an easy life,’ her mother said, feeling terribly sorry for her obviously heartbroken daughter. But she was proud of her too. Jess had a very sensible head on her shoulders. There weren’t many girls who could turn down a man like Ben.

‘Mum, I have to go to bed,’ Jess said, tears threatening once more.

‘You do that, darling. I’ll go tell your father that you’re home.’

‘What?’ was Joe’s first reaction. ‘She turned him down, did you say?’

‘Yes,’ Ruth said with a sigh.

‘Ben won’t take that lying down,’ Joe said. ‘He’ll come after her.’

‘Do you think so, Joe?’

‘You mark my words. That man’s crazy about our Jess. He’ll be on our doorstep in less than a week.’

But he wasn’t.

A week went by. Then two weeks. Then three.

Still no contact from Ben, either by phone, email or in person.

Joe couldn’t believe it. Ruth wasn’t quite so surprised. Maybe it was a case of out of sight, out of mind. Men, she believed, fell out of love more quickly than women.

On the following Sunday, Ruth did suggest Jess ring him, but this was vehemently rejected.

‘No, Mum, there’s no point. He’s not going to give up his lifestyle for me and I’m not going to give up mine for him. That’s the bottom line. So he’s being sensible, not contacting me. It would only delay the inevitable. And make it even harder for me to move on.’

‘But you’re not moving on,’ Ruth pointed out, frustrated. ‘You’re not even sewing any more!’

‘Give me time, Mum. It’s not even been a month.’

It had been, in fact, three weeks, four days and five hours since she’d last seen Ben, Jess thought bleakly. And even longer since she’d slept in his arms. Which she had the night before the funeral. It had been quite wonderful to have Ben make love to her, face to face, then to fall asleep with her head on his chest and her arms around him. She would remember the way that had felt for ever.

That Sunday night, Jess dreamt a futile dream where she and Ben got married somewhere overlooking a beach. An Australian beach. Shelley Beach, she recognised after she woke. It was an upsetting dream because that was only what it would ever be. A stupid dream! God, was she ever going to get over that man? Maybe she should have said yes and been miserable in New York, for this was just as bad, living life without him. Maybe worse!

She had to work in the office that day. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be a busy day for Murphy’s Hire Car with hardly any phone calls or bookings coming in. She had way too much time to twiddle her thumbs, drink endless cups of coffee and think depressing thoughts. By the time twelve o’clock came, Jess had had enough. She stood up from her desk, deciding that she needed distraction or she’d go stark, raving mad. She would go to the movies, find herself a silly comedy. Or an action flick. Putting on the answering machine, she made her way from the office over to the house where she found her mother in the kitchen, packing away the food shopping.

‘Mum, I think I’ll go to the movies this afternoon. Do you mind?’

‘Not at all. I’ll look after the office.’

‘Thanks, Mum.’

Ruth Murphy watched her daughter walk off slowly, thinking to herself that it would take Jess a long time to get over Ben. A small, selfish part of Ruth was glad that nothing had come of their relationship. She could not bear to think of her only daughter going off and living in America. At the same time, she could not bear to see her so unhappy.

Sighing, she finished putting away the shopping, made herself a sandwich and coffee, then toddled over to the office. After checking the answering machine—there’d been no calls—she ate her lunch, then picked up the book she kept there for reading when the office was slow. But she’d only finished a few pages when the phone rang.

‘Murphy’s Hire Car,’ she said brightly.

‘Hello, Ruth.’

Ruth sat up straight once she detected the American accent.

‘Is Jess there?’

‘No,’ she said, feeling both anxious and defensive at the same time. ‘Jess isn’t here at the moment. Are you calling from New York?’

‘No, Ruth. I’m parked just down the road from your place.’

Oh, dear Lord, he had come after her, like Joe had said.

‘I tried Jess’s phone several times but it’s turned off.’

‘She’s at the movies.’

‘At the movies?’ He sounded puzzled, as though he couldn’t imagine why she would be at the movies at this time of day.

‘She needed to get out of the house, Ben. She’s been very down since she came back from New York.’

‘Did she tell you what happened?’

‘Yes, she did. We’re a very close family. There are no secrets between us.’

‘I love your daughter, Ruth. And I mean to marry her.’

Ruth was taken aback by the fierce determination behind his words.

‘In that case, what took you so long to come after her?’ she couldn’t help throwing at him.

‘I needed time to change my life so that she would accept my proposal.’

‘What do you mean? How have you changed your life?’

‘I would rather discuss that with Jess, if you don’t mind. Though, there is something I’d like to ask her father first, if he’s here.’

‘Well, yes, he is. He’s working on one of the cars.’

‘I’ll be there shortly.’

When Ben hung up, Ruth just sat there in a total panic. Clearly, Ben meant to ask Joe for Jess’s hand in marriage. What else could it be? She should have warned Ben that he might not get so civil a reception from Joe. He was mad as a hatter with Ben. Alternatively, she could race down to the shed and warn Joe that Ben had come to win Jess over.

But she’d dithered too long, Ruth realised when she saw a white sedan speed past the office on its way to the shed.

Joe heard a car pull up outside, but he was underneath one of the limousines when the driver walked in, so all he saw was a clean pair of trainers and some bare legs under cream shorts.

‘Are you there, Joe?’ Ben called out.

Joe’s temper had already flared by the time he slid out from under the limo and stood up to face his visitor. ‘You took your bloody time, didn’t you?’ he snarled. ‘My girl’s been in a right state over you.’

‘I’m sorry about that, Joe. To be honest, I was in a right state myself when she turned me down. Took me a day or two to see sense after she left, but then I got to thinking more rationally and I realised she was right. We wouldn’t have been happy living in New York. But it took some time to fix things so that we would be happy.’

‘What kind of things?’

‘I would prefer to discuss that with Jess first. Let me just say that I think she’ll accept my proposal after I tell her what I’ve done. But I guess there’s no harm in you knowing that I’ve come home to Australia to live. Permanently.’

Joe was both stunned and relieved. ‘That’s good news, Ben. Really good news. Ruth will be especially thrilled. So you’re going to ask my girl to marry you again, is that it?’

‘That’s the plan. But I want to do it right, Joe, so I’m asking you first for your daughter’s hand in marriage. I know that your approval would mean a lot to her.’

Joe could not have been more pleased. Or more proud.

‘You have my full approval, Ben. But I sure hope you haven’t bought the ring yet.’

Ben’s heart plummeted at this statement. ‘You think she might still say no?’

‘Hell, no. But she’ll want to pick the thing herself, if I know my Jess. That’s one strong-minded girl.’

‘Tell me about it.’ Ben laughed. ‘Now, I’d better get going.’

‘Good luck,’ Joe shouted as Ben made his way back to the car. ‘You’re going to need it!’ he chuckled to himself.